I'm afraid that the filter in one of my cycled tanks stayed unplugged all night. The plug was loose, and it must have been bumped to where it came unplugged. I didn't think to check the filter cartridge to see how dry it was before plugging it back in, so I can only assume that it was off all night. How long can the BB in the filter live without water?

That can vary-usually after about 6 hours the BB will start to die-not all of them-just some as long as they are still wet-Once they dry out they will die pretty fast.

If the filter media was still wet-what I would do-dump all the water out of the filter box and give the filter media a good rinse in dechlorinated water and get it hooked back up. Monitor your prams for a couple of weeks and make any extra water changes as needed. Or if you don't have a test kit-just add an extra water only mid week for a week or so.

Most likely you will have a mini-cycle for a week or so-but-since the BB are sticky and adhere to all the surface areas and in the top layer of the substrate-you will still have BB in the tank to help seed the filter media. It shouldn't take a week or so for the cycle to be fully established-provided that it was already established to start with. Also, if you have live plants in the tank-you may not have any issues at all.